Iranian Bribes? They Gonna Come Talk to Me About Iranian Bribes? In Afghanistan?

Hamid Karzai responds to allegations that his chief of staff is the beneficiary of large Iranian bribes:

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Monday that once or twice a year Iran gives his office $700,000 to $975,000 for official presidential expenses – and that Washington also provides “bags of money” because his office lacks funds. Karzai’s comments come a day after The New York Times reported that Iran was giving bags of cash to the Afghan president’s chief of staff, Umar Daudzai, to buy his loyalty and promote Iranian interests in Afghanistan.
On a serious note, Iran and Afghanistan are adjacent to one another and a large number of Afghans—including Hamid Karzai—speak a version of the Persian language. The United States and Iran have a decades-long grudge match mostly over events that transpired in the Carter and Eisenhower administrations. It would be exceptionally foolish for the government of Afghanistan to deal with Teheran primarily through the lens of that dispute.

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KABUL, Afghanistan — For more than a decade, wads of U.S. dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks and, on occasion, plastic shopping bags have been dropped off every month or so at the offices of Afghanistan’s president — courtesy of the Central Intelligence Agency.
All told, tens of millions of dollars have flowed from the CIA to the office of President Hamid Karzai, according to current and former advisers to the Afghan leader.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai has a sugar daddy, and its name is the Central Intelligence Agency. Or at least it had a sugar daddy. For over ten years, American spies greased Karzai's palms about once a month with suitcases, backpacks and even plastic grocery bags full of cash.

Afghanistan said Monday it expects to release within two weeks a first batch of alleged Taliban prisoners whom the US says are responsible for dozens of NATO and Afghan deaths. Kabul announced on January 9 that a total of 72 detainees held at Bagram jail near Kabul would be freed due to lack of evidence, and an official said Monday that 37 were to be released initially.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will keep 5,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan when he leaves office in 2017, according to senior administration officials, casting aside his promise to end the war on his watch and instead ensuring he hands the conflict off to his successor.

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. forces in Afghanistan have accidentally shot dead a four year old boy, Afghan officials said on Friday, the latest violence to strain ties between the uneasy allies. The Afghan-U.S. relationship has been damaged by President Hamid Karzai's refusal to sign a bilateral security deal that would pave the way for a U.S. military presence after the withdrawal of most foreign troops this year.

KABUL, Afghanistan — The U.S. national security adviser met Afghan President Hamid Karzai Monday in Kabul, while the Pentagon urged the leader to change his mind and sign a security pact that would allow thousands of American troops to stay in the country beyond a 2014 withdrawal deadline.

Gen. Joseph Dunford probably knew it was going to be a tough job — being what is likely the last commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan — refocusing from combat to withdrawal. But instead of the Taliban giving him trouble, it's the guy he's trying to support: Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai admitted Monday that his chief of staff had received "bags of money" from Iran but insisted the payment was transparent and a form of aid from a friendly country.Cash payments "are done by various friendly countries to help the presidential office and to help the expenses..." said Karzai at a press conference in Kabul.The New York Times reported Saturday that Karzai's chief of staff, Umar Daudzai, has been receiving regular cash payments from Iran, which is trying to expand its influence in the presidential palace in Kabul.